Finland will join the organisation on July 1, after an agreement signed in Garching, southern Germany, on Tuesday by Education and Science Minister Tuula Haatainen and ESO Director General Catherine Cesarsky is ratified by the Finnish parliament.

ESO operates observatories in remote sites in Chile's Atacama desert, where skygazing benefits from clean, dry air, high altitudes and no light pollution from human settlement.

The principal facility is the peak of Cerro Paranal, where ESO is building a complex called the Very Large Telescope (VLT) to observe phenomena in the infrared and visible ranges of the energy spectrum.

ESO, established in 1962, also comprises Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland.

Its headquarters are in Garching; the website address is (www.eso.org).

SPACE.WIRE